Ed Ahmad’s GuySuCo land deal…AFC, Gaskin demand contract be made public

Members of the political opposition and one financial analyst disagree with Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Roger Luncheon, who reportedly said that the onus is on the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) to take legal action against a New York-based Guyanese businessman,

Developer Ed Ahmad

Edul Ahmad. Ahmad, who is currently before the courts in New York, is a close friend of former President Bharrat Jagdeo. He appears to have breached the conditions of a land deal. Dr. Luncheon also said that the National Industrial and Commercial Investments Ltd (NICIL) is not responsible for taking action against the defaulting developer since the agency only acted as an agent in providing the needed expertise for the sugar corporation during the “suspicious” deal. The political opposition party, the Alliance For Change (AFC) and a financial analyst, Ramon Gaskin, have said that Dr. Luncheon is only being “economical with the truth” and as such they demand that the contract be made public. Ahmad was sold an almost 17-acre portion of land belonging to GuySuCo, at Leonora, for $80M. The conditions of sale were that the company would have established a factory to create jobs for persons in the neighbourhood. The agreement to this condition was the factor which governed the price at which it was sold. However, the businessman ignored those initial agreements and the land has now been converted into a house lot project, Leonora Mall and Hollywood Garden, all being managed by Leonora Projects. It is owned by Shareef and Ed Ahmad. The $80 million plot of land is now worth more than $600M. An investigation into who authorized Ahmad’s actions was launched but to date, there has been no official statement on the details of the findings. Specifically, David Patterson, General Secretary of the AFC in a recent interview said, “It is incorrect for Dr. Luncheon to place the onus on GuySuCo to pursue legal recourse. The establishment of a wood processing plant was part of his bid…Ed Ahmad’s bid was accepted since it was deemed to be creating jobs. If NICIL had advertised the land for housing a lot more persons may have been interested thus allowing GuySuCo to get more money for the lands.” The AFC member added, “This is a sweetheart deal, for one of their friends (Ed Ahmad), who never had any intentions of doing anything other than profiting from the deal. The onus is on the government to enforce the articles of this deal and the people of Guyana once again, have been short changed.”

Ramon Gaskin, Financial Analyst

The politician said, “What is the use of the government using NICIL to execute these deals and when it is exposed, is it nothing short of a sweetheart deal for their friends. After it is exposed, then they state that the other government agency has to be the enforcer of the agreement. NICIL would have received a commission for this.”When asked if he believes that NICIL should take the legal action he said, “They should be the agency. The reason they gave NICIL the land to sell in the first place is because they claim that GuySuCo does not have the capacity to do so.”So how come now that the deal has been exposed as flawed, they are now saying that GuySuCo has the responsibility to enforce a deal that they entered into. Does GuySuCo now have the capacity to take Ed Ahmad to court when they did not have the capacity to sell it in the first place?” Gaskin said, “Listen, Dr. Luncheon is lying through his teeth about this land deal. This is nothing but a sweetheart deal. The people of this nation must understand the links between these people. Ed Ahmad is the man that helped to build the house for the former President Bharrat Jagdeo.” “This matter will not be pursued by GuySuCo and NICIL is simply shifting responsibility. The people need to demand to see the contract. Dr Luncheon is telling lies through his teeth when it comes to the nature of this contract. They must make it public so that the people can know who signed what and what the nature of this land deal is.” Dr Luncheon was quoted as saying that he saw a legal brief prepared by stakeholders who said that this matter needed to be pursued legally. He said, too, that this matter will not be unattended or swept under the mat. Ed Ahmad was charged by the US Federal authorities for his involvement in a massive real estate fraud scheme. In October 2012, during a plea deal in a New York court, he was found guilty of knowingly and intentionally conspiring to defraud several lending institutions over a period of 15 years.

David Patterson, General Secretary